These are this year’s first leaf shoots of my little male Ginkgo biloba "Mariken".
The ginkgo biloba tree is a living fossil, recognisably similar to fossils dating back 270 million years. It's not recognized as deciduous trees, nor as a conifers and is a kind of link between the groups.
This beautiful tree, which its special shape, has also an exceptional slit foliage, which is not only marveled by myself, also the famous poet Goethe admired the leaves and used theme in his writing as a symbol of friendship. He mentioned the Ginkgo tree, in his romantic poems:
This leaf from a tree in the East,
Has been given to my garden.
It reveals a certain secret,
Which pleases me and thoughtful people.
Is it a living being,
Which has separated in itself?
Or are these two, who chose
To be recognized as one?
Answering this kind of question,
Haven't I found the proper meaning,
Don't you feel in my songs,
That I'm one and double?
The variety “Mariken” forms naturally a compact spherical shape. The deciduous curly leaves are like elephants ears, and slit at the center. In autumn they turn bright yellow. But let us not now think of the autumn, where spring is just starting.
@aikimomm Only, as you said that you are plant person. Most of the ginkgo trees you see in gardens, parks etc. are cultivated and selected as "male". Because the female produces in autumn a rather stinky (like outdated molten cheese, vomit or butyric acid) and gluey seed/fruit, that falls and covers the place. Short: quite a mess. The very special shape of the leaves, mine has, is a variety. It is cultivated from a deformationen in a tree in the Netherlands, and its called after the mystery figure "Mariken" from this town.
